MICHAEL LISTER'S FIRST THREE SERIES NOVELS: POWER IN THE BLOOD, THE BIG GOODBYE, THUNDER BEACH

by Michael Lister

  “I just don’t want to do anything to help your partner frame me,” I said. “Or shoot Ray.”

  “You mean die tryin’ to shoot Ray,” Ray said.

  “Okay,” Pete said. “Have it your way. Just answer one question for me. I know you’re working for Lewis and that eager young wife of his. I just want to know if you were when all those people were killed.”

  He had been my partner. I had been willing to die for him the way I now was for Ray. And I wanted to turn around and use all the strength I had to beat his face in until it was unrecognizable. Somehow I found the restraint I needed to refrain, and he eased back over and took his seat beside his new partner, who was glaring in our direction.

  “You think we acted like that when we were still part of the good guys?” Ray asked.

  “I didn’t,” I said. “I’m sure you were far worse.”

  He smiled.

  Eventually, the debate ended. There wasn’t a clear winner among the candidates, but everyone in the audience was a loser. Frank Howell made his way down our side of the platform to greet his supporters, but Harry lingered on stage. He was staring at Rainer who was obviously trying to communicate something with his expression. His head was lowered, his eyebrows arched, and he looked from Lewis to Lauren and pointed to his watch.

  I started to move toward Rainer, but stopped when Harry began to speak.

  “Folks,” Harry yelled over the noisy crowd. “Folks. Could I have your attention for a moment. I’m sorry, but there’s something I need to say.”

  The crowd quieted down. Rainer was nodding at Harry. Lauren, who was shaking her head, looked over at me, her expression one of fear and helplessness. Howell, who was near me, looked over and arched his eyebrows.

  Standing so close to him, I saw again how deep and abundant the acne scars on his face were and thought that he was benefitted by being on stage—too far away for potential voters to see just how unattractive a man he really was.

  “I was going to wait to do this, but I feel I must say something tonight,” he said. “I’m seriously considering dropping out of the race for mayor of this great city. If I do, it will be for purely personal reasons. I’d like nothing more than to get the opportunity to serve all of you fine folks, but sometimes . . . well, we don’t always get what we want. I’ll make my final decision in a couple of days and make an announcement then. For now, please keep me and my family in your prayers.”

  “Well,” Howell said, his smile expanding his fat face even farther. “My, my.” Winking at me, he added, “Wonder what kind of personal issues he has.”

  He then pranced away—well, as much as a slightly effeminate, elephantine middle-aged man can.

  I looked for Rainer again, but he was gone.

  “Did you know anything about this?” I asked Ray.

  He shook his head.

  “Wonder what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Let’s see if we can’t act like detectives and find out.”

  Chapter 28

  “Take him around back and wait there,” Walt said. “I’ll get the car and pull around.”

  Ray and I began to escort Harry away from the crowd, which was still demanding an explanation from him.

  “And see if you can find Mrs. Lewis,” he added.

  “I’ll look for her,” Ray said. “You take him.”

  Without waiting for a response, he disappeared into the crowd, and I grabbed Harry’s right arm and ushered him toward the rear of the building.

  We walked down a series of short, mostly dark hallways and wound up in a small storage room with a back door exit.

  “We’ll wait in here until Walt comes around with the car,” I said.

  He didn’t say anything, only continued to look lost, as if he were the one who was in shock instead of the one who had delivered it.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “I have all the money I’ll ever need,” he said, his voice small. He still had the unfocused stare of the desperate. “I just wanted to do something meaningful with my life. Help the people of the city that’s been so good to me and my family. All I ever wanted to do was serve the public.”

  “Why are you considering pulling out of the race?” I asked.

  He didn’t look at me, didn’t acknowledge my presence in any way.

  “I would’ve made a great mayor,” he said. “Lot of money and people flowing into our little town right now. Lot of corruption. We need someone who can’t be bought, who’ll stand up to those who would try to destroy our way of life. I could have done that. I—”

  “Harry,” I said, my voice loud and urgent.

  He looked at me.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you dropping out of the race?”

  “It’s very personal,” he said. “I don’t want to, but I have to. They wanted me to drop out tonight, but I just couldn’t. I keep hoping a miracle will happen.”

  “Who’s they?” I asked. “Who’s doing this to you?”

  He didn’t say anything, just shook his head.

  The storage room was damp, and I could hear water dripping in an unseen corner. Pungent and difficult to breathe, it smelled of mildew and cleaning chemicals.

  “Does it involve your wife?” I asked.

  He sobered up instantly, turning his blue eyes on me with clarity and intensity. “My wife?” he asked. “What you are talking about?”

  “Are they using your wife to get to you?” I asked.

  “She has nothing to do with this,” he said.

  “Who killed Freddy Moats?” I asked.

  “Who?”

  “What does Rainer have on you?”

  His eyes widened slightly, but he quickly recovered.

  “Let us help you,” I said. “We can make this go away. You just have to trust us. Isn’t that why you hired us?”

  “There’s nothing you can do,” he said. “Just pray for our city. Those who control it are going to take it down.”

  “Is Howell behind this?” I asked.

  The rear door opened, and Walt and Ray were standing there.

  “Come on, Mr. Lewis,” Walt said. “Let’s get you home.”

  “Where’s Lauren?” I asked.

  Both Walt and Lewis looked at me in surprise.

  “I couldn’t find her,” Ray said. “She’s gone. Somebody said they saw her walking.”

  “Probably walked home to clear her head,” Lewis said.

  “I’ll go see if I can find her,” I said. “See if you can get him to level with you. He’s not dropping out of the race because he wants to.”

  Chapter 29

  The lakeside park was cut out of a corner of pine and oak forest about a mile from downtown. It had a red brick entrance with a wrought-iron gate, a walking path, picnic pavilion, swings, and a merry-go-round for children.

  The sliver of cloud-shrouded moon and smattering of stars against the black velvet sky did little to illuminate the dark night, and the streetlamps scattered throughout the park spilled only a small pool of light onto the ground directly beneath them.

  Except for Lauren, the park appeared to be empty. Very few people would find it inviting on such a dark and foggy night. The playground equipment sat still and quiet, the only evidence children had been there recently, their tiny shoe prints in the sand around it.

  Lauren, clutching her purse in her hands, walked along the path, her head down, her movements labored.

  I scanned the park, my eyes moving across the wooden benches and swings, through the picnic tables on concrete pads and the grills a few feet away from them, past the pavilion, the public restrooms, the play area, and down to the cypress trees next to the black lake. At least one other person was here, watching from the woods or some other hidden vantage point, I knew it. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him.

  “Nice night for a walk,” Clip said, stepping out of the darkness to stand beside me.

  We were beneath a large oak tree, hidden by a tall shrub near the entr
ance of the park. I had asked for his help after the debate, and he had been watching Lauren ever since, even while I was with Harry in the back of the school.

  “She being followed?” I asked.

  “You mean ’sides us?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded.

  “Any idea where he is?”

  He shrugged. “Haven’t seen him myself. July got a quick peek at him when he—”

  “Where’s July?”

  He pulled one of Ray’s Handie-Talkies up out of the darkness, extended the antenna to turn it on, and called for July.

  The Gavlin Handie-Talkie units belonged to Ray. He had recovered them in a case he worked a year or so back and held onto them, thinking we might need them one day. I don’t think Clip and July using them is what he had in mind.

  “I’m here,” July said. “There’s someone following the little—” Clip depressed the button to speak so I wouldn’t hear what she called Lauren. “—and I’m going in for a closer look at the guy.”

  I held out my hand for the unit.

  “It was her idea,” he said. “She had them in her car.”

  “July, this is Jimmy,” I said. “Stay where you are. I repeat. Stay where you are.”

  “Jimmy?” she asked.

  “Whoever he is, he’s very good,” I said. “Probably plenty dangerous, too. I want you to back away. Go get in your car and go home. We’ve got it from here.”

  “I ain’t goin’ anywhere, fella,” she said.

  “Does Ray know you have his radios?” I asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Just stay where you are,” I said. “I’ll get back to you in a minute.”

  The lake was so dark it looked like an oil spill, its black surface shimmering like a Florida highway on an August afternoon, with the elongated reflections of the lights from the houses on the other side.

  “How we gonna play this?” Clip asked.

  “I’m open to suggestions,” I said.

  “Got none,” he said.

  I depressed the button on the Handie-Talkie and spoke into it. “Come in Nancy Drew,” I said. “Nancy Drew come in.”

  “Cute,” she said. “You gotta plan?”

  “I guess you could call it that.”

  “Am I in it?” she asked.

  “You have the most important part,” I said. “Walk over to Lauren, tell her she’s in danger and that I asked you to take her home, then do. Clip and I are gonna try to jump the guy who’s following her.”

  “Are you sure I’m ready for such a big assignment, Jimmy?”

  “I believe in you, Nancy. I really do.”

  “Seriously, Jimmy, why won’t you let—”

  “Dammit, July—” I began, but stopped when she turned off her radio.

  “Go see if you can find her,” I said to Clip. “I’ll keep an eye on Lauren until you get back.”

  “Okay,” he said, “but I think she can handle herself just fine.”

  Watching Lauren as she continued to wander around aimlessly, an unseen weight pressing down on her, I was filled with conflicting thoughts and feelings. How could one person make me feel so many different things?

  Searching the vicinity around Lauren to see if July might actually be doing what I had asked her to, I saw movement in the tall stalks of bamboo next to the path in the far corner. Lauren was heading directly toward it.

  I eased in the direction of the bamboo thicket, moving slowly, staying in the shadows, and was about halfway there before Lauren reached it. If the person in the thicket was July or even the guy following her just trying to get a better look, I didn’t want him to know I was here, but I wanted to be close enough to respond quickly if something went down.

  And it did.

  As Lauren reached the thicket, a man sprang out of the bamboo, pounced on her, and drug her back in with him.

  Chapter 30

  It all happened so fast I wasn’t sure it had happened at all. It was quiet, too. Neither Lauren nor her attacker had made a sound.

  I raced toward them, jumping over the benches and tables in my way.

  The dim ground was mostly grayish sandy dirt with only the occasional patch of dampening yellowish grass, and in several places crooked oak roots broke the surface of the soil, slowing me down and making me stumble.

  When I reached the place where they had disappeared, I didn’t slow down, just plowed into the thicket as fast as I could. As I came through, I tripped over something on the ground and fell face first into the dirt, bamboo branches slapping me as I fell.

  As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled over and raised my arm to ward off an attack, but none came. As I sat up and looked around I heard small moans. I had tripped over Lauren. She was lying on the ground a few feet away from me, but whoever had pulled her in had vanished.

  She wasn’t moving that I could tell, but it was so dark that she could have been bleeding to death from a slit in her throat and I wouldn’t have known it.

  I scrambled over to her, feeling her face and neck.

  She was breathing, her pulse pounding in her throat, and I couldn’t feel or see any injuries.

  “Lauren,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  “Jimmy?” she asked. “Is that you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you grab me?”

  “No,” I said, getting to my feet and helping her up. “I tripped over you.”

  “I was okay until then,” she said. “I think you broke a rib.”

  “Really?” I asked, reaching down and running my fingertips along her side.

  “Not literally,” she said. “I was kidding.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Sorry.”

  We stood there awkwardly for a moment, breathing our labored breaths into each other.

  “What’re you doing here?” she asked.

  “A lousy job of protecting you.”

  “Where’s Harry?” she asked. “Is he—”

  “He’s fine,” I said. “Walt and Ray took him home.”

  “Didn’t I tell you not to follow me?” she said.

  “Yeah, but you didn’t mean it. Besides, aren’t you glad I did?”

  She smiled. “At the moment,” she said. “But I’ll be good and mad later.”

  “Did he say anything to you?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “Did he try to do anything to you?”

  She shook her head again.

  “Why didn’t you scream?”

  “Why all the questions?” she asked. “I don’t know why. I was scared. He had my mouth covered. I can’t remember. It happened so fast.”

  “So he just dragged you into the woods, dropped you, and ran off?”

  “I guess, Jimmy. I’m not sure. I’m in shock at the moment—ask me later.”

  I heard a rustling in the leaves and bamboo branches behind me and turned around, reaching for my gun.

  “Don’t shoot me, motherfucker,” Clip said, holding up his hands, which were nearly invisible in the dark night.

  “I can’t even see you,” I said.

  He laughed, then stopped abruptly and said, “Don’t make a colored man feel bad for being dark.”

  “Where’s July?”

  “She’s coming,” he said. “She’s right behind me.”

  “Stay here with Lauren, I’m gonna see if I can find the guy.”

  As I was leaving, July appeared behind him, her white face only slightly more visible than his. She was breathing heavily, and had a confused, slightly quizzical look on her face.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded, but quickly averted her eyes from mine.

  “What is it?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “Guess I’m not cut out for fieldwork after all. Just go.”

  “Watch them,” I said to Clip.

  I ran out of the bamboo and back into the park, my eyes scanning the darkness and the lights that dotted it. I was searching for movement.

 
I saw none.

  Giving up on seeing him, I closed my eyes and stood there in the stillness and quiet, only the sounds of crickets in my ears, and listened for him.

  My attention was first drawn to the small splash of a fish jumping in the lake, then to the deep guttural groan of a bullfrog or a gator—I wasn’t sure which, and to the rustling of bamboo stalks further down the woods from where he had snatched Lauren.

  I took off toward the sound, the dried acorns and brittle oak leaves crunching under my feet sounding like car tires on an oyster shell parking lot.

  The noise must have warned him of my approach. When I stopped at the edge of the woods, the yellow and green bamboo stalks in front of me were still and quiet.

  After waiting for another moment and not hearing or seeing him, I decided to get ahead of him and circle back. I ran along the path about twenty feet further, then turned into the woods, heading back in the direction I had heard him.

  This time it was he who heard me. He shot out of the bamboo like a jackrabbit, running across the park toward its exit, darting around the objects in his way.

  Rather than chase him, I ran straight up the side of the park, sprinting toward the gate. It worked. I got there before he did. When he saw me, he stopped abruptly and ran the other way. I followed.

  Running down the slope toward the water, I was unable to gain on him.

  As he neared the water, Clip appeared to his left, which caused him to pause for a moment. I caught up with him then, and when he started to run again I was right behind him.

  We were beneath cypress trees now, the lake just a few feet away. When he got near a small group of cypress knees sticking up about two feet out of the ground, I shoved him and he tripped over them and went head first into the lake.

  He immediately tried to swim away, but I dove on top of him, wrestling him to the shallow bottom and holding him there until he submitted.

  When he surrendered, I pulled him up and pushed him toward Clip, who was standing at the water’s edge. Not wanting to get wet, he sidestepped the man and pushed him to the ground.

  I waded out of the water, panting and gasping.

  “Stick him in your trunk,” I said between gasps, “and we’ll have a little sit down with him after we get the ladies home safely.”